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The differences between intensive and extensive reading

Intensive reading

Brown (1989) explains that intensive reading "calls attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like." He draws an analogy to intensive reading as a "zoom lens" strategy . 

Long and Richards (1987) say it is a "detailed in-class" analysis, led by the teacher, of vocabulary and grammar points, in a short passage."

Intensive Reading,  sometimes called "Narrow Reading",  may  involve students reading selections by the same author or several texts about the same topic. When this occurs, content and grammatical structures repeat themselves and students get  many opportunities to understand the meanings of the text. The success of  "Narrow Reading" on improving reading comprehension is based on the premise that the more familiar the reader is with the text, either due to the subject matter or having read other works by the same author, the more comprehension is promoted.

It can be concluded that intensive reading focus on the language, rather than the content. When intensive occurs,  content and grammatical structures repeat by the student and they get  many opportunities to understand the meanings of the text. We read the text line by line to know the information about the text.

Extensive reading

Brown (1989) explains that extensive reading is carried out "to achieve a general understanding of a text."

Long and Richards (1971, p.216) identify extensive reading as "occurring when students read large amounts of high interest material, usually out of class, concentrating on meaning, "reading for gist" and skipping unknown words."

The aims of extensive reading  are to build reader confidence and enjoyment. Extensive  reading is always done for the comprehension of main ideas, not for specific details.

It can be concluded that extensive reading to comprehend a general understanding of the text. The text it is only for pleasure. We can skip the unfamiliar word, because we do not focus on the meaning.

Adopted from:

MacLeod, Maija. Retrieved from http://fis.ucalgary.ca/Brian/611/readingtype.html

Skimming and scanning reading strategy

Skimming

Skimming is a quick reading:

- to know the general meaning of a passage                                                               

- to know how the passage is organized,  that is, the structure of the text                          

- to get an idea of the intention of the writer

Skimming is a more complex task than scanning because it requires the reader to organize and remember some of the information given by the author, not just to locate it.

It can be concluded that skimming to get general meaning or to get the idea of the text. Skimming is reading quickly through the table content, the preface and we select from the chapter headings. 

Scanning

Scanning is a quick reading, focusing on locating specific information. Scanning involves quick eye movements, not necessarily linear in fashion, in which the eyes wander until the reader finds the piece of information needed. 

Scanning is used when a specific piece of information is required, such as a name, date, symbol,  formula, or phrase, is required. The reader knows what the item looks like and so, knows when he has located  what he was searching for. It is assumed then, that very little information is processed into long-term memory  or even for immediate understanding because the objective is simply matching.

It can be concluded that scanning is a quick reading. Need to find specific details. We can run our eyes down to get the information that we need. It is for an assignment or a tasks that our teacher has set.

Adopted from:

MacLeod, Maija. Retrieved from http://fis.ucalgary.ca/Brian/611/readingtype.html